I hoisted myself up and over the wall once again, nerves buzzing. I didn't know why, but I felt like something was going to happen. I really second guessed my decision then, but I wasn't about to turn back. I fished out my flashlight, approaching the house with hurried steps. It was pitch black by then, so I was very much relying on the artificial lighting. The cracking and creaking noise the double doors made as I opened them sounded way too loud. Standing there alone, going inside on my own, I felt scared. All the excitement had left me at that point.
I took the stairs two steps at a time, eager to be done and leave the mansion. The room was the same as we had left it, though much darker than before. The moon wasn't peaking out anymore to provide light.
Emily's hat laid abandoned on the floor behind the bed. I found a discarded book there as well, picked up both. I guessed they must have gotten there when the bookcase toppled over. I put the hat absently on my head and dusted off the book.
'Alice in Wonderland' it read on the cover. I recognised the story, I had read it once when I was smaller. I remembered liking it, but nothing more than that. I was about to put it back on a shelf, chuckling to myself, when I heard the wooden floor creak from the door's direction.
"What are you doing in my house?"
I'm quite convinced that my heart stopped beating in that moment. I almost dropped the book as I looked up at the figure standing in the doorway.
I just stared for a few seconds.
"Trick or treat...?" the only thing I could think of finally tumbled out of my mouth. And yes, I wanted to slap myself as soon as I said it.
"What?" he said, and stepped inside the room. The moon chose that moment to come peeking around the corner of a cloud, a ray of light shining through the big windows on the eastern side of the room. It was just enough for me to see him properly without having to use my flashlight. A guy probably not older than me and my friends, around the age of 16, stood there on bare feet with a very confused expression.
I flushed in shame and regret. It all made sense now, how clean the house looked, the paintjob outside and the replaced windows, the modern equipment and clean dishes in the kitchen. We shouldn't have come here, I thought, intestines turning.
"I won't ask again. What are you doing in my home?" his voice was calm and smooth, but his gaze felt cold and piercing, eyes roaming my body and the room suspiciously.
"I--Uh--Let me explain," I stammered, realizing that I still held the book in my hand. I put it on the shelf and raised my hands to show him I meant no harm. "Look, I didn't mean to intrude. I just used to come here with my friends as a kid. This place used to be empty, we would dare each other to come here. I didn't know anybody lived here now, the door was unlocked so we thought--"
"The gates are chained shut," his icy cool voice cut through my ramblings, and I clamped my mouth shut. "How did you get in?"
"I climbed the wall." I simply said, heart hammering. His eyes looked so dark, even in the moonlight. I didn't know why a boy as old as me would make me feel so nervous, but something about him ticked me off. Big time.
"Are you a thief?"
"What? No!" I thought for a second and looked down at my clothes, and realized how this must look. I was dressed in all black, except for the cowboy hat. I got rid of that and replaced it with my oni mask, pointing at it "I'm an oni, see? This is just a costume."
"Why would you dress up for a burglary?" he frowned.
I shook my head exasparated "I'm not a burglar. This is a Halloween costume. It's Halloween night, don't you know?"
I saw a flicker of doubt in his eyes "Halloween night?"
I held up my phone for him, pointing at the date. He took the device from me, looking at it grimly, eyes coming up to lock on mine. "I forgot Halloween was tonight," he admitted. I resisted the urge to ask how anyone would be able to forget about the best holiday ever! and took my phone instead when he offered it. "But I'm still not convinced you didn't come to steal the valuable antiques from this house."
I sighed, pushing the mask down to run a hand through my hair, gripped the cowboy hat tighter in my hand, and then suddenly remembered my friends waiting outside.
"My friends!" I exclaimed, all excited "They are outside waiting for me! They'll tell you the same thing!"
"Is that so?" he asked, voice dripping with skepticism. I nodded enthusiastically anyway, to which he did squint his eyes in suspicion but allowed me to lead him to the gang. He didn't put on shoes, and I chose to not question it. I followed him down the stairs, the hat once again resting on my head, through the livingroom to the double doors I had left open. He led me to the gates, where we stopped.
"Guys!" I cried, sweeping my beam of light around wildly, searching.
Nobody answered.
"Guys come on this is not funny! Get over here, I'm serious!" my voice cracked midsentence, which I ignored the best I could. But I could feel the urge to cry advance on me slowly as I searched the darkness for any sign of my friends. I sniffed and turned back to the stranger, who didn't look the least bit surprised or sympathetic.
"Looks like they bailed on you," he said "Or you are lying to me."
"I'm not lying," I bit back, more angry than scared now "They were here. And we didn't come to rob you. We just wanted to have a look around. We didn't know you lived in there, nobody does, actually."
He searched my face for a long time before he spoke again, voice back to sounding calm and smooth "So be it. If you haven't taken anything, you can go. But I don't want to see you here ever again."
I was both very surprised and very relieved. I was expecting him to want to call the cops on me and my appearantly non existing friends. It would have been bad if my parents got to know about this little adventure, I would have never lived that down.
He pulled a key from his pocket and unchained the gates, opening them just enough for me to slip out. I was halfway through when I remembered, and I looked back at him "I'm Josh, what's your name?"
"Doesn't concern you," he answered cooly, and started to pull the gates shut. I jumped back before he could close them in on me. The chains were back in seconds and he was retreating towards the mansion.
I stood there for a while, lips pulled back in a frown, flashlight in hand, watched him disappear in the night. The moon vanished behind the clouds, and I was once again eveloped in darkness. A cold breeze rattling the dry trees made me shiver, and I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took it out, staring at the name flashing on the screen, and answered the call with a scowl.
"Where are you?!" I hissed into the phone as I began walking down the hill.
"I was about to ask you the same thing," Jackson whispered. That meant they were still around somewhere, I thought annoyed. "A few police cars drove by and we thought someone might have called them because of us."
I sighed as I began to see the streetlamps on the road where the bus stop was, making out dark figures standing huddled together.
"I see you," I said and ended the call. As I approached the bus stop I waved, still annoyed, but relieved that they were okay.
"Josh!" Claudia ran forward to meet me and threw her arms around my shoulders. I stopped, frozen in her embrace. Before I could react she was pulling back already, worried eyes jumping over my face "Where were you? We thought you got hurt. I'm sorry we left, but those police cars scared us!"
The gang came to stand around us by then, asking similarly worried questions. I thought about that guy in the mansion, but then decided not to say anything about him.
"I'm fine. I got your hat, Em. And I was looking for you guys," I said instead "I only stopped looking when Jackson called me and told me you had already left."
Emily took her hat with a grateful smile "Thanks Josh. I wish you hadn't gone alone. We should have gone back with you." Everyone nodded along to that.
I just shrugged, trying my best to be nonchalant "It's fine. Nothing bad happened afterall."
"Are you sure man?" Jackson asked. I saw that he was slightly suspicious of me, which wasn't surprising, he knew me better than anyone.
"I'm sure. Stop fussing and get on that bus instead!" I told them, pointing at the bus that just came rolling in front of the bus stop. We began running towards it and got on just in time before the driver closed the doors. She frowned at us but didn't say anything when we showed her our passes.
I checked the time, 9:07 pm. I was surprised, I didn't think we had spent so much time out. At least I'll be home before 10 like I had promised, I thought.
Claudia turned to me in her seat, next to mine, when she and Emily stopped laughing at something Cody said. "Are you really okay? Nothing happened in there?" she asked, still obviously concerned.
I had been looking out the window up until then, but now I faced her, trying my best to not cause any more worry. "I'm fine, really. Just a little disappointed that we didn't stay longer," I told her and shrugged with a small smile.
"Yeah. Kinda blows we had to leave. I had fun though, before we left."
"Not having fun anymore?" I nudged her playfully, making her giggle and shake her head.
"I AM having fun, thanks Josh,"
I felt my cheeks flare slightly as we smiled at each other, it reminded me of that moment in the dreadful house. Thankfully the moment was broken when we reached our bus stop near the school.
We quickly got off and said our farewells to everyone, wished each other a nice weekend and left the way we originally came. I had half a mind to ask Claudia if she wanted me to walk her home, but her brother came and picked her up. The magic was broken, but I counted myself lucky that I managed to spend so much time alone with her. Maybe next time I'd work up the courage to ask her out.
So it was just me and Jackson in the end, we took off in the direction of our street in silence for the most part. I wasn't really in the mood to talk much, and I had my mind otherwise occupied by what had happened at the mansion. I guessed Jackson had nothing to say either.
"You would tell me if something was up, right?" he asked me when we reached the front porch of his house.
"Of course, you are my man. You know that," I told him with surprising ease. But even that couldn't fool him completely, I felt from the way we parted for the night. It felt strange, to hide something from him. I was so used to confiding in him, someone I could trust without a second thought, it just felt wrong. And yet, I kept it from him for some reason. I didn't know why.
Or maybe it was the lingering unease that hadn't left me since I first entered that house. Something was bugging me. I couldn't stop thinking about it, not during eating dinner leftovers with Dad, or as I got ready to sleep, staring at my reflection in the mirror while I brushed my teeth and washed my face.
But it finally hit me as I was lying in bed, annoyingly awake.
During the very short amount of time I had spent with that strange guy, not once did I see his chest rise or fall.
Not a single time.
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